


Beyond the Break

by jessahmewren



Category: The X-Files
Genre: Angst, F/M, MSR, Post-Episode: s05e07 Emily
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-06
Updated: 2017-12-06
Packaged: 2019-02-11 08:40:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,050
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12931650
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jessahmewren/pseuds/jessahmewren
Summary: Mulder comforts a grieving Scully. Written for the Xmas Files Creative Challenge on Tumblr.  Day 6: Snow Globe.





	Beyond the Break

-0-0-0-

It was September, the twilight of summer, and the wind was chill as it glanced across the Atlantic.  Sporadic gusts roused the sand in weakened dust devils only to deposit it, scattered and displaced along the empty beach.

She studied the waves from her place on the sand.  Not really watched…a mere passive observation, her eyes fixed on the retreating horizon.  Just off the shore, beyond the break, a red and white buoy bobbed gently, stirred by the rise and fall of the swelling sea.  She watched as it teetered in the dark water.

Scully hugged her knees, warming her hands beneath them.  Her hair, tousled and thick with sea spray, tangled about her face and neck.  She sat in the shadow of an abandoned life guard station, in a patch of sun spared by the dark fingers that stretched over and around her halfway to the water.

It was the tower that Mulder saw first, its bone white skeleton bleached by the sun of a dozen summers.  And then her, sitting small beneath it.  He called to her as he trudged through the sand, but his voice was quickly lost, muted by the rising wind.

He came to a stop beside the chipped white paint of the tower, just over her left shoulder, and took a moment to breathe in the heady air.

"Scully.”

She didn’t look at him at first, maybe wishing him away, but when she finally did he could see she’d been crying.  Her eyes were red rimmed, and, where salt met salt, the briny wind had chapped her face.

“What are you doing here Mulder?”  Her blank voice was hollow.

He crossed behind, settled on the sand to the left of her, easing stiffly into the powdery quartz.  He looked at her profile.  “I’m here to find you,” he said simply.

She pursed her mouth, then let it relax.  “I’m not lost.”

Mulder chuffed lightly, drawing up a knee to rest a forearm there.  His navy blue chinos were already powdered with sand and little flecks of ocean fodder.  “Could’ve fooled me,” he said seriously.  “It’s been over a week since anyone’s heard from you Scully.”

She glanced at him furtively.  “I had vacation days,” she said simply.

Mulder nodded.  He did a casual survey of the empty beach, the overcast weather, the craggy inlets and dismal swirling pools.  “Don’t know what you were going for Scully, but if I were you I’d fire my travel agent.”

His warm, lopsided grin did nothing to soften the tough exterior that was always such a challenge to breech.  She looked at him.  “Why don’t you just go home Mulder?”

But the pain in her voice told him he couldn’t.  He edged a little closer to her.  “I’m not going anywhere Scully.”  He was shoulder to shoulder with her now, and his warm hazel eyes met hers.  “Not until you tell me what’s going on.”

She shook her head, first in adamant refusal, then something akin to defeat.  Her eyes welled with tears.

“She was my daughter,” she said, her voice barely a whisper over the crashing waves.  “ _My daughter_ , Mulder.” 

He put his arm around her, drawing her close.  Emily, he thought.  Of course.  It was still so fresh.  Something inside him sank. 

Scully studied her hands, worrying her upper lip.

“Scully, look at me.”

She didn’t refuse him, could never refuse him.  When she finally looked at him he could see the dark circles under her eyes.

He pushed the hair away from her face as her eyes searched his, waiting for an answer.  He realized he had none.  He pressed his lips to her forehead instead, and felt her body relax.  “We’re going to be ok,” he said. 

She sank back against him with her full weight, as if she had been holding herself up with borrowed strength.  Mulder gently stroked her hair, the wind rocking them slightly. 

“Hey,” he said easily.  “I brought you a present.”  Scully stirred against him.  “Superstars of the Superbowl?”  Mulder smiled.  “Even better.”  He had a little bag beside him, and he handed it to Scully.  He knew better than to fish it out himself; Scully liked presents. 

“Oh Mulder you really shouldn’t have.  Seriously.”  The flat tone of her voice got a good chuckle out of him.  “Of course I should have.”  He reached around her where she held the little snow globe and shook her hands to make the snow inside whirl.

Scully cocked an eyebrow over her shoulder.  “I know how it works, Mulder.  Where did you get this thing?” 

“At the airport,” he said with some pride.  His hands still covered hers as she held the trinket, and his warmth shielded them from the cutting wind.  He gave the snow globe another shake. 

“When I was a kid, I had a few of these.  I used to shake them up all at once and watch the snow whirl…and there were different scenes.  Sometimes I would look at them one at a time and pretend that I was there.  See Scully?  The frozen lake and the ice skaters?”  He gave the globe another shake, his hands warm and welcome against hers.  “And the mountains behind?  Maybe we’ve got a little cabin in those mountains, Scully, where there’s no Syndicate and no FBI.”  He kissed her cheek, finding tears and salt.  “Maybe I’ll take you ice skating one day.”

Scully didn’t see the frozen lake, or the ice skaters or their little cabin.  She saw a young Fox Mulder, dreaming away a lonely childhood by staring into snow globes.  She leaned back against him and closed her eyes. 

“Mulder?  Let’s get out of here.” 

His eyes widened in surprise.  “Yeah?”

She nodded as he helped her off the cool sand.  “Scully you’re freezing,” he said quietly, and he wrapped her in his light jacket.  She still had the snow globe in her hands.

Neither of them spoke as he led them off the beach.  His arm was at her back, in its usual place, and things felt right and good for the first time in a long time.  She may have lost a daughter, Scully thought ruefully, but she had a Mulder, and that was far more than most people would ever have. 

-0-0-0-


End file.
